​Mrs. Taylor's​Class Blog

Today we worked so hard on finishing (or almost finishing) typing up one piece of our writing from our memory box. Those of us that finished this writing had a choice and were able to choose either:- typing up their favorite piece of writing that we have done with our memory box (we have written about our first memory, our special place, what we would put in our memory box, a 'how to' price and will soon be writing about a family tradition)- doing a scientific da vinci sketch of one artifact

- In math today we worked on two different concepts/strategies

First ... we had to solve something for Mrs. Taylor ... she said she had a lot of money and was willing it give us all the money if we could tell her how much she would have to give us by the end of the month. Each day she would give us one more dollar than the previous day.So, on Feb 1st she gave us $1.00, then on Feb 2nd she gave us $2.00 - so far we now have $3.00 total - then Feb 4th she gave us $4.00 --- how much money would you have by the end of the month? What would the sum be?This is a long problem and we discovered that we need to use many strategies to solve this and are still working to solve this problem!

Next we worked on a math message involving creating our own number lines to EFFICIENTLY solve equations. Counting on by 1s is not the most efficient way to solve a problem. Can I break apart the number to make it easier? For example, if it was 18 + 12 my number line would start at 18 and I could break apart 12 into 10 + 2 - next, I would jump 10 ahead from 18 and land on 28 then I would have a small jump of 2 to land on 30.

We used a blank number line that we put the numbers on to solve the questions:

8+12 (what would the first number be? how many jumps would I take? 5? 10?)42+1537+888+27

can I Show you how I would solve this on a number line using jumps?

Reminders:Swimming starts next week - please return your forms if you have not.

Practice counting by 10s starting at any number between 1-10. For example, start counting by 10s starting at 21

- After music we had a special guest speaker - she came to share with us her knowledge and stories about the Cree and Blackfoot. She shared with us the story of her Moss Blanket - can I tell you what it is? Why did they use moss? She shared with us the many beliefs about nature that both the Cree and Blackfoot share.She shared with us the importance of protecting our environment and how everything is alive because everything has a story to tell.Can I share with with you what else I learned about? What else did she show us? What was it's story?We will now be continuing to learn more about the Blackfoot throughout the next month - we are very excited!

- We are almost done typing up/publishing one of our writing pieces from our Memory Box. Next, we will be doing a da Vinci inspired sketch of one of the items. We are very excited to show you all of our hard work at student led conferences.

Happy Tuesday!

Today we...

- had music to start our morning

- talked about the olympics and watched some clips on Canada winning gold medals

- spent some time doing catch-up on some science experiments - can I tell you what they were? hint: evaporation...

- in the spirit of the Olympics today we had...​VISCOSITY OLYMPICS!we had a race between water, vinegar, olive oil and dish soap. Can I tell you about the race? who was the winner? why did they win?We learned that LOW viscosity means that a liquid is usually thinner and faster and that HIGH viscosity means that a liquid is thicker and slower.What liquids had low viscosity and what liquids had high viscosity?

- we learned more about how to use googledocs. Next we spent some time typing up some of our Memory Box writing to eventually share at Student-Led Conferences in the form of a book. We have spent time editing our work and are now writing our good copy. ​- we ended up our day in the gym - what are we doing in gym?

Tomorrow is Valentines Day.​If you are planning to being Valentines please make sure that you have one for every student in the class. If you would like to bring one for your buddy you can do that as well since we will be spending time with them in the afternoon.

Have a great night!

Reminders:- no school for students this Thursday, Friday, Monday- please return swimming forms

After gym we had art. We have been learning about animal adaptations to weather changes and how they survive in the winter.Our art today was polar bear art. We will share pictures once it is dry.We used watercolors (since we are learning about liquids as well), sharpies and salt - what did the salt do to our painting??

After our art was complete we spent some time doing centres - we could choose either a literacy centre or a math centre.

Have a warm weekend!

Happy Birthday to our Jan and Feb classmates!!

Please return swimming forms.Upcoming Important Dates:Feb 15-16 - Teachers Convention - no school for studentsFeb 19 - Family Day - no schoolFeb 5 - Feb 22 - We have an in school field trip - we have a Dumming Residency for 3 weeks in FebruaryFeb 26 - March 2 - Grade 2 Swimming Lessons

At this time, Calgary Board of Education schools will be open as usual on Thursday, Feb. 8, but we are closely monitoring the weather conditions and will provide an update if a decision is made to close CBE schools. As always, parents make their own decisions about sending their children to school. Please refer to information about busing and transportation in winter weather.If a decision to close schools is made, parents should watch their email for updates from the CBE. Information about any closures will be posted on the CBE websites and shared with local media. Follow us on Twitter (@yycbedu) as well.The safety and security of our students is of the utmost importance in our decision making.

this morning we spent some time working with our number lines to help us with addition and subtraction. We worked on this math message:

Can I tell you what equations I would write for each of these questions? How does doing the addition help me with the subtraction? Is it the same amount each time?

Next we played a math game that helped reinforce moving along a number line, adding, subtracting and finding efficient ways to count on a number line.

To play this game you need a deck of cards. Deal 2 cards - that is your first number, deal 2 more and that is your second number ---- I can teach you the rest of the game and we can just draw a number line at home.

This afternoon in science we learned about SURFACE TENSION - ask me what surface tension is and what experiment we did to learn about this! It was a lot of fun to learn about surface tension. ​Is there anywhere else that we see this happening?

After recess this afternoon we spent some time on ketchup - some of us were finishing our "how to" writing, some were finishing the math message and some of us were finishing our science experiment pages.

This morning we started our day with literacy centres - what is the new centre? we are detectives looking for .......

We worked on our writing again today. We are working on writing the "rules" for finding the most perfect ______. For example, how to find the most perfect notebook. Some of us are even on the editing stage.

This afternoon we did two science experiments. One experiment had to do with evaporation - can I tell you what we did? How long do I think it will take?The next experiment we were challenged to turn a liquid into a solid - what did we decide to do? Did it work? What ended up happening?!

Yay for an early spring!This morning we did a bit of research on groundhog day and looked at the news to see if Balzac Billy saw his shadow or not - lucky for us there will be an early spring!

We also had some fun trying our hand at saying: How much wood could a woodchuck chuck If a woodchuck could chuck wood? As much wood as a woodchuck could chuck, If a woodchuck could chuck wood.

We spent some time playing the new math game that we learned that has to do with digits and place value.

We did a science experiment that showed us the 3 states of matter - can I tell you about Marty the Snowman and what we did? What are the 3 states of matter?

We had some catch-up and free time at the end of the day.

Have a wonderful weekend! Stay warm! Practice your spelling words!

​The blog posts from yesterday posted in opposite order so make sure to read Thursday as well...

Upcoming Important Dates:Feb 8 - Pizza Fun LunchFeb 15-16 - Teachers Convention - no school for studentsFeb 19 - Family Day - no schoolFeb 5 - Feb 22 - We have an in school field trip - we have a Dumming Residency for 3 weeks in FebruaryFeb 26 - March 2 - Grade 2 Swimming Lessons

Please see last post for home reading tips. It is important that we continue to spend time reading each night :)

Home Reading Tips:- When stuck on a 'tricky' word: remind your child of their strategies - chunking, sounding out, skipping the word and the re-reading, using the pictures to help them decode the word, vowel "rules"

- Throughout reading stop and ask your child a question about what they have just read - you can recall a new word and ask them what that word means and how they know, ask them what the problem in the story is and how it was solved, ask them to retell the story recalling the important events, what is the difference between _____ and _____....etc..

- Punctuation - using the punctuation to guide their reading. Stopping at periods, changing their tone when they reach an exclamation mark or a question mark.

- Asking inferential questions - Questions that go beyond the text. For example:- why do you think that happened?- How do you think that made ____ feel when _____ happened?​- What lesson does this story teach us?- How does the author feel about ______?- What do you think the author wanted us to learn from reading this book?- How did the character feel about _________?- What would the sequel of this story be about? Can you tell me how you would tell it?

- had literacy centres - we worked on reading to self and remembering our strategies, we had catchup and we edited/finished working on our writing pieces inspired from our memory box.

- we learned a new math game - can I teach it to you? It has to do with digits and their place value spot.(you have to make a T-chart --- one column has a d (for digit) and the other has a p (for place))

- we taught Ms. McNabb's class a math card game - if we have a deck of cards at home I can teach you as well! It helps me with addition and subtraction.

- we had gym - we are working on our skipping skills.

- we are starting a new unit in Science - LIQUIDS --- we learned today that there are 3 STATES OF MATTER - Can I tell you the 3 states that we learned today??(If you are interested you can watch "Matter Chatter" by Harry Kindergarten on youtube)- we made "jot notes" about what we learned about solids, liquids and gasses.

- we set up a jar of water in our class and measured how much water is currently in it - we wonder what will happen when we come back to school on Friday? Monday? Will anything change?

Tomorrow we will be writing out a class list to bring home if you wish to hand out Valentines Day Cards - it is completely optional. We will be doing a Valentines Day craft with our kindergarten buddies and doing some Valentines/Love themed writing throughout the week.

Upcoming Important Dates:Feb 8 -Pizza Fun LunchFeb 15-16 - Teachers Convention - no school for studentsFeb 19 - Family Day - no schoolFeb 5 - Feb 22 - We have an in school field trip - we have a Dumming Residency for 3 weeks in FebruaryFeb 26 - March 2 - Grade 2 Swimming Lessons

Please see last post for home reading tips. It is important that we continue to spend time reading each night :)